Anita Alfaro

Owner of Anna's Bridal Boutique

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Before moving to Napa in 1970, Anita Alfaro grew up in San Antonio, a small rural town in Michoacán, Mexico. To make ends meet, her mother sold chicken eggs so she could buy a pig, then sold the pig so she could buy a sewing machine, in the meantime having learned how to sew by watching other seamstresses in the village. Soon enough, her mother became the best tailor in town. “She would turn simple pieces of fabric into beautiful masterpieces,” Alfaro recalls, “for me this was just like magic.” All the while, her father worked as a bracero on the railroads in the United States, trying to send home all the money he could.

Alfaro’s father was rewarded for his labor and granted U.S. citizenship, allowing Alfaro and her family to come here to live with him. She feels incredibly blessed to have had the opportunity to immigrate legally, have her family reunited, and be able to start her own bridal shop. While Alfaro was in high school, her mother suffered an injury from a car accident, and she had to drop out of school and work in the fields to help make ends meet. She soon found a job working as a seamstress, where she developed the skills she needed to later open her business. Eventually, she got married and was able to continue her education. Having dealt with hardships in this area, she made sure her children got the opportunity to continue with their education and grow into successful adults.

With the support of her husband Guillermo, and the in-store assistance of her daughter Olga, Alfaro opened Anna’s Bridal Boutique in 1999. The boutique provides “anything you need for your future event under one roof.” The business has conquered all sorts of challenges from ethnic discrimination to economic downturn. During hard times “you just have to remind yourself that you’re doing this because you love to do it.” Alfaro is proud to share that she has won awards for her outstanding services for the past five years.

“I remember the first dress I sold,” she tells. “The store was very small and I could count the number of dresses in the store holding up the fingers on my hand. After the woman paid me for the dress, she insisted I keep it in stock until her event, so that I could show it as a sample and possibly sell more. That day I cried for the blessing that I was given.”

In terms of advice to future generations, Alfaro urges young people to never stop learning. “As immigrants, we come here with big dreams, with the fire to succeed in life knowing we must luchar (fight) to reach those dreams every single day. And although there will always be obstacles, our perseverance is stronger. Never give up.”